In the modern personal computer industry, the consumer is able to select system components from a wide range of performance specifications, price, and vendors. As such, those personal computers that utilize a common microprocessor architecture are currently configurable, by way of the operating system, to accept components from a wide range of sources and that have a wide range of capabilities.
A particularly important system component, and one which is available in a wide range of performance ranges and prices, is the video display monitor. According to the widely known so-called "IBM-compatible" personal computer architecture, an expansion slot in the personal computer receives a hardware graphics controller which in turn is connected to the monitor. The graphics controller receives information from the computer central processing unit (CPU) and presents the information to the monitor in a format suitable for the monitor to display the information.
However, not only must the graphics controller hardware be capable of receiving the display information and presenting the same to the monitor, but the computer software must also be capable of controlling such an interface. For computers using the well-known MS-DOS operating system in combination with the WINDOWS windowing operating environment, both available from Microsoft Corporation, certain computer programs commonly referred to as "drivers" provide such an interface. As is well known in the art, a driver contains program code that can be called by the operating system and used to provide data to the graphics controller in a format suitable for the controller to receive and process the data for display on the monitor.
As is well known in the art, many types of graphics controllers are available; particular standards, such as VGA, AVGA, and IVGS have evolved according to which such controllers operate. In addition, new graphics controllers, such as the QVISION graphics controller available from Compaq Computer Corporation, are now available that are capable of performing enhanced and complex graphics operations on data provided to it by the CPU, resulting in improved resolution images displayed on the monitor. Many of these controllers include the capability of operating according to several video modes, where a video mode refers to a set of parameters including display resolution, color depth, scan rate and the like. As such, the operating system for the personal computer generally includes a number of different driver programs so that the appropriate driver may be selected to operate with the particular graphics controller and monitor selected by the consumer. Conventional drivers include video mode information necessary to operate the monitor in its executable code.
Heretofore, a particularly troublesome problem for personal computers operating according to the WINDOWS environment has been the configuration of the system relative to the large universe of controllers, monitors and video modes. For proper operation, the appropriate driver must be installed and enabled for the particular monitor and graphics controller inserted in the system, and the appropriate video mode for the installed driver must be selected. In the WINDOWS environment, the WINDOWS SETUP utility program available from Microsoft Corporation is generally executed to accomplish this configuration. However, in this conventional arrangement, the video mode information is contained within the driver executable code, and is thus invisible to the SETUP utility. Accordingly, the conventional SETUP utility itself includes information indicating the video modes available for the particular driver.
While this conventional arrangement of the video mode information in the driver executable code, in combination with mode availability information available in the SETUP utility, operates well once the system is configured, the maintenance and upgrading of the driver or display hardware is extremely cumbersome. For example, because the video mode information is embedded in the driver executable, the driver must be fully reinstalled each time that it is upgraded with a new video mode; in addition, because the SETUP utility also contains mode information, it must also be upgraded (i.e., reinstalled) each time that a driver receives a new video mode.
In addition, circumstances often arise where a slight tuning of the video mode information can correct a display problem. For example, if a computer customer purchases a large number of monitors from a source other than the computer (and graphics controller) manufacturer, and if the monitors are slightly off-spec to the extent that display anomalies are present, it may often be possible to merely modify one of the parameters in the video mode information to correct the problem. However, under the conventional driver and SETUP utility arrangement, modification of the video mode information requires modification and reinstallation of the entire driver, and may also require upgrading of the SETUP utility to reflect a new video mode. Considering that modern graphics controllers, such as the QVISION controller available from Compaq Computer Corporation, are capable of operating according to as many as one hundred video modes, the upgrading of video modes according to the conventional arrangement is extremely cumbersome.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method of storing video mode information in such a manner that it may be updated and upgraded to provide a new video mode for an existing driver without requiring reloading of the driver itself and of a setup utility.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such a method that can also program the controller according to the desired video mode.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such a method that can be readily adjusted by the computer user.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such a method that can assist the computer user in selection of the best video mode for the existing system configuration.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having reference to the following specification together with its drawings.